The Digital World is Flat, Unless You’re Google
August 21, 2008

Warmer weather may have cooled off the downloads.

That’s what consultant Strategy Analytics reported this week when it said second-quarter digital-media sales grew less than a percent from the first quarter after a 3.3% rise for the prior quarter.

Even Apple’s perpetually growing iTunes service, whose sales were up 7.3% from a year earlier, fell during the quarter, the consultant said.

The exception: that beast called Google.

The world’s most popular search engine had a 3.5% rise in digital-media sales during the quarter and an 8.3% jump from a year earlier.

Earlier this week, research firm Parks Associates said consumer spending on direct-to-television Internet video content will jump fivefold within the next five years as customers find more ways to connect their TVs to the Web with games consoles, video-on-demand set-top boxes and other components.

Maybe these two consulting firms should meet for coffee.

Posted by Danny King on August 21, 2008 | Comments (0)